Spritual Encouragement, Sermons I've Preached, & Some Random Writings

Knowing God – Ch. 1

I have just begun rereading what is becoming an all-time Christian classic, “Knowing God” by J.I. Packer. I wanted to share some quotes from chapter 1 as well as a closing paragraph or two he writes on meditation.

“We are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it.”

“Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with he doctrine of God’s attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are. . . We must seek, in studying God, to be led to God.”

“Meditation is a lost art today, and Christian people suffer grievously from their ignorance of the practice.Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God. . .It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself; it is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God’s power and grace.”